CL3367: The Rise of the Roman Empire: An Economic and Social History

Course description

Classical history used to be the history of texts. It used to be the history of great men doing great deeds. But the study of history changed and now we ask different questions: how does the world change? How is the world made? When one looks at what we have left from antiquity, we see its material remains. All over the Mediterranean and from Egypt to Britain, the Romans left marks of what we call their civilization. The material remains suggest a prosperity and population unmatched until the early modern era or even later. To understand those developments and the nature of Roman civilization requires a different form of history: no longer is history to be understood through the actions of emperors and the leaders of Roman society, but we start to see Roman history as developing through economic and social structures. This course examines how the Roman empire came into being, not as a political entity, but as a social and economic structure, the structure that is represented in the remains that cover those lands that formed that empire. Those remains represent a particular society and, in its most simple form, that population and that society needed feeding. The villas needed farming. The cities needed constructing. The poor needed food, the soldiers needed pay, the elites needed wealth. This course looks at how Roman society came into being from a materialist perspective. How do the Romans organise themselves to generate that prosperity? How was society organised to generate wealth? How was that wealth used to establish particular social and political forms? The course examines the workings of the workings of Roman society (and history) through the Roman economy. Sessions 1-3 consider issues of approach. We then look at population before considering urban and then rural economies. Looking at how urban societies functioned and how the villas especially operated to maintain societies dominated by a landed elite. In the final part of the course, we look at the relationship between state, politics, and economy and how the economy changed in the transition into late antiquity.

Course Outline

Economic History or a History of Structures?

The City: Economic Models and Model economies

Urbanisation, acculturation, and economic growth

Macro-Demographics: The Population of Roman Italy

SEMINAR: Macro-Demographics and The Size of the Roman Imperial Economy

Assessment

Summative Essay: To be handed in on a day in the Summer term agreed by the Department (2500 - 3000 words) (70%)

Group Work: To be handed in on a day in the Summer term agreed by the Department (30%)

Artifact Study

The project involves the study of an artifact or group of artifacts from a Roman imperial site and the presentation of the economic significance of the artifact/artifacts. In 2015-16, this will involve working with and in the Museum of London. It will be assessed from presentational materials developed so as to explain the artifacts to an audience of the general public.